]]> http://www.wolferproductions.com/2010/04/taking-haiti-home/feed/ 0 http://www.wolferproductions.com/2009/08/mob/ http://www.wolferproductions.com/2009/08/mob/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000 Timothy Wolfer http://www.wolferproductions.com/?p=78 Today I had my first wake-up call that I was no longer in a safe country, like the ones Maranatha typically works in. Filming anything, and doing whatever I want might not be a smart idea. Walking threw a market of Arua, Uganda. I was filming the American missionaries that I was sent down to make a story about. The market was busy and most of the people had been asking me to take their photo. Every once and a while you will hear one or two get a little upset, but I have found that in every country I go to typically they are bluffing. I finished up my shot and was walking away when a man comes up to me, grabs my shoulder bag and pulls me to the center of the street, and started to ask what I was doing. I yelled back to the Americans I was with and they immediately saw the problem.

Maybe asking is a mild way of putting it. He was yelling and getting very violent. Kristine, who is a missionary to Uganda, quickly jumped in and stepped on the man’s foot trying to push him back. I had been told that these people can snap fast, and pick up a mob mentality. As fast as this all was happening a crowd had gathered that was so big that cars could not pass on the road. My biggest fear was that this crowd was going to decide to join the guys who grabbed me. They were demanding that I delete the video and they were going to call the police. I will admit, I was scared, a third world police station was sounding very good at this point.

There were two men involved I was later told: one that grabbed me and another man. As Kristine tried to push the first man back the second one kicked her twice in the shins so hard they started bleeding. The man was yelling, “I am going to slap you.” Kristine was yelling back “Slap me, slap me”. She later told me that she didn’t think they would slap her. While this was going on the first man still had his hand on my camera demanding I delete the video, and his other hand on my shoulder bag. With the bag around my neck I knew this was not good so I pulled it off with my left hand but still hung onto it. With me distracted trying to work the camera, someone had reached into the bag and taken one of the memory cards that was in the outside pocket. I remember Kristine’s daughter, Harmony, calling her father and saying “they are trying to take his camera, we need the police, and the truck fast.” After trying to bluff a few times, and fake that the video was deleted, I finally gave in and deleted it because he was not as stupid as I thought. The man finally let go of the camera and bag. Pushing through the crowd, I found a motorcycle taxi, jumped on and headed back to the Adventist compound.

To go from a sunny happy day, to a man getting so angry, and a crowd forming so fast was unreal. The whole thing lasted about five minutes but I shook for about 30 minutes after that. Later, I gave Kristine a bag of my beloved skittles for her trouble.

I am a little behind with my video now, so another day another dollar. I got to get back at it.

Tonight we visited with Miriam who was a victim of the shooting. Walking into the room we were greeted buy Miriam, her mother, and a friend. She was sitting up on the edge of the bed and just finishing up a bath. We talked about the hospital food for a while, and I made my typical stupid faces at her to see if she would laugh. She did. I asked if she would share her story.

Being a quiet girl I didn’t think she would say that much. Boy was I wrong.

Softly-spoken she told me how the students had been upset about the food on campus, and to add to the problem they had canceled their Friday night music program. The students started to strike, or as we would call it riot’s, after a while the riots where controlled and every one sent back to their dorm. That Sunday the believed leaders of the riot where called into a room where there were about 15 police, the school headmaster came into the room and told them they were to be shot for breaking Uganda law. The students began to panic and gun fire started, Most of the shooting took place at the ceiling but some of the police where firing at the kids.

Miriam was lying on the floor when a bullet hit her, pelvic region breaking 3 vertebrae and barley missed her spine. At least two other students were also hit but no one has died. She was first taken to a college and then taken to the hospital. The injuries paralyzed her in the left leg. The leg has been healing and started to work again but it is still paralyzed from the ankle down.

As we chatted I kept watching her feet. Her friend had put her flip flop back on her food after the bath, Miriam was tapping her right foot as we talk but the left one just hung lifeless. As we were about to leave she used her right foot to take the left flip flop off. It does not sound like a big event but it was for me to realize that she can’t move her foot at all because of a stupid incident that could have been prevented.

Police have arrested leading police officers for allowing the incident to happen. Miriam has been moved to a VIP room in the hospital and her medical bill is being picked up by the police. For me it put it all into perspective, that the news you see on TV or read about on the web, is more than just images and words. It is real.

Flying to Sudan and Uganda, is probably the most nervous I have been sense I started traveling over a year and a half ago. That being said, I still slept like a baby on the flight right into Uganda, and getting through customs was ratter boring, with the exception of the form you fill out on H1N1 virus (also known as a Swine flu). The only fun part of the trip was the cute Norwegian girl I got to sit with on the plane. God loves to pour out his blessings in those little surprises. He sure knows how to make me happy.

The next morning after I woke up, we headed to the airport to meet up with the people I was sent down to cover a story about. The road leading up to the airport took us between the coast of lake Victoria, and the UN section of the airport, with some of the largest aircraft I have ever seen. This is definitely a country that has played a key role in some of the most controversial wars of the last 20 years. Entbbi, Uganda is about 12 hours form the Sudan, 12 hours from Rwanda, and less than that from the Congo. Heading into the Airport to meet the missionaries, I saw a security check point. In my pocket was my brand new Gerber pocket knife that I just bought 3 days ago. Thinking this was the end of my knife, I tossed it on the X-ray belt with my iPod on top, ran through the metal detector and waited. The knife came through and I quickly grabbed it before they could see what it was.

Most of the rest of the day was spent getting permits and things to enter into Sudan. I didn’t get to film much because these were government buildings. Oh well, I hope. One thing that the General Conference had gotten for me before I arrived, was a Press Pass, and official invitations to film in Sudan form the Sudanese government itself, unfortunately the pass must be returned once I leave. I am tempted to steel it at the cost of $100 USD. Any ideas?

I started to wander the streets of this city I was in. After wandering through an open air market and looking at some shops, I walk past a row of motorcycles. Before I assessed how much my life is worth, one of the guys asked “Do you want a ride?” Looking around at the bumper to bumper trucks, vans, and cars all honking and getting nowhere, I thought “how bad could this be” so I asked how much, he responded, 10,000 shillings, about $5. Off we went, he offered to let me drive but I decided it was not a good idea in Flip flops. Maybe tomorrow. Whizzing around the roads, going down sidewalks and nearly hitting people all the time, is when I realized this is one of those times I must thank the lord for taking care of me. Sort of like eating, you ask him to take care of you before you eat, or in my case drive with a mad man. After about 2 min of riding my driver turns to me and makes the sign for Pot, and asked me if I would like some. I just laughed and said no. At one point during my city tour, we turn the wrong way up a one way street into oncoming traffic, thinking this was the end, The prayer had not made it through the smog, or slow internet, my driver moved to the side and rowed between the oncoming traffic and a very large curb. Not what I would have done but it all worked out.

Story 1: A few weeks ago my Company sent me into the bush to video tape the guy who looks for the most remote churches in Mozambique and documents them with a GPS. You see this kinda stuff on dateline with Katie Curik but I much better looking. A.K.A. the worlds coolest road trip ever. THe experience started with me flying about half way up the country to a place called, Chimoio. This is the first plane I have ever been able to shoot video of take off, landing, and out on the tarmac. After meeting the guy Elmer we started out on our adventure looking for land. It consisted of off roading for hours on end. Down two tracks and small paths. For food we would buy bread and bananas off the side of the road. It is about the cheapest way to get food. The Fast Facts about the churches is most of them are made out of mud bricks, Keneesue a bamboo like reed, or my favorite just a bunch of logs under a tree. Some times we would come upon the churches that were under a tree and find 20 members waiting for us there.

One night we were camping in the deep bush, the kinda place with no bathroom no power nothing. We were camping next to one of the church member houses, the only one in the village that had brick instead of grass reeds. We had been listening to music all day. all of a sudden in the darkness I hear “la da da daa da.” It was our translator sing the course to Bubbly Tows by Jack Jonsion. I found this funny so I started to teach the local kids the words to the song. Then I remembered we had it on the iPod in the truck, so I went, started the truck and played the song. It was one of the coolest things ever, a bunch of bush kids singing to Jack Jonsion around our truck. The next morning I woke up to the sounds of “La da da daa da”. This is the only place I have ever had a shower with a bucket of hot water and a goat starts to walk in, talk about no privacy.

Follow Elmer to the dot on what his job is I decided to take my camera into a “Shop Rite” which is a Walmart want to be. After shooting for about 10 min 6 guards come out of no were and escort us in to the back of the store, made me set the camera down on a table. Then told Elmer to have me delete it, Elmer started to argue with the guys but I looked at Elmer and said “it is ok I will delete it” right at the sec we booth new what we were thinking. I hit the play button made sure they could see the video for a few seconds, then started to hit as many menu buttons as possible that came up in English, then hit the stop button and said all done. Elmer told the guard and they believed us and let me go. Jokes is on them I still have all the footage.

Camping in the bush was a new experience for me, as it is for any one. For food we ate beens and rice or bread and cheese we would pick up on the side of the road. Showers were a bucket of water heated over a fire and you would scoop water over your self with a cup. Using the bathroom was usually a hole in the ground or just wonder into the bush and do it were ever. The first night we stayed with some locals in there house. I nearly got eaten alive with all the bugs. After that we stayed in tents that be had brought.

The trip home was a adventure in it self, we were going to take a 17 hour bus ride from Beira to Maputo to save on fuel. Elemer was going to take a week off and I was going back to work in the city. We were told the bus left at 4:30. We work up at 4, quickly grabbing our stuff Elmer drove like a mad man to catch the bus, upon arriving there we discovered the bus didn’t leave until 5:30. Once the bus took off we started the movie “Noplian Dionmight” about half way through the movie we realized we had only gone 3 city block, The bus had a broken transmission. Back into the truck and the road trip continued. As we drove the 17 hours in 12 hours back from Beria to Maputo, I had to be back the next morning for a church dedication. This is the part of my adventures were I found how dangerous driving is in Mozambique, Driving along I would feel Elmer swerve and see we just misted a truck stopped in the middle of the road with no lights on or the worst was when we would swerving for people, we even hit a dog. We also saw over turned semi, and bus which had driven off the road, all in that one trip.

I had the opportunity of going to the Kruger Park it was cool. I got to see some amazing animals including 1 of 300 Cheetahs in a park the size of a small country.

Road trips are something worth living, This last weekend we decided to take one to Prictiora, South Africa for a weekend. Our fun started when trying to cross the boarder Friday night. After pulling into South Africa and getting my passport stamped they stopped Marlon, one of our guys from Venezuela and told him he needed a new visa and that he could not enter the country, After telling us that the passport agent went back to text messaging, so we moved Marlon down to the next agent to see if they would not notice his expired pass port. While we waited for poor Marlon we looked at my Mexican’s passport only to find his was expired as well but the guy had missed it. After what seemed like a life time Marlon came back with a big NO GO. Hopping back in our van to turn around and go back into Mozambique we started to drive and realized all the boarder guards were busy checking truckers loads out. So my trusty Mexican drove the van right past all the guards and right into South Africa. Now I can say I was part of illegally smuggling some one into a country. The hi-light of the weekend was going shopping at a real mall. Seeing western culture is always a plus when your working in a 3rd world country. Coming back was the most fun part, When they denied our friend a stamp to South Africa they took our temporary vehicle registration. The idea is you hand it to the gaurd on your way back across the boarder. We had picked up a blank one and when the gaurd pulled us over and asked us for it I tryed handing him a blank one, that worked for about two seconds before he realized it was blank. Then he started to hassle me. So I pulled the dumb act, saying I had no idea, and this was my first boarder crossing by myself bla bla bla and after a while of hasseling he bought it all and let us across. I have found I have a morbibed sense of humor and adventure for this crazy fun stuff.

The other day I got to drive a x army truck around our shop a few times. It was the sweetest thing ever . Feeling the raw power under you as the thing just inched along. If any one wants to send me some diesel money for Christmas and a big truck I would be grateful. Nothing more thow I don’t want to become materialistic. I have been doing some driving while over hear, it has been fun trying to get used to the other side of the road and how crazy they are. You can drive were ever you want. The other day I was going down a dirt road that had been flooded in spots by rain. I was worried it was going to come in the truck because it was high. Lots of fun.

Well drilling is one big project Maranatha has been working on since I have been hear, I am proud to say that our first well was put into use this last Friday. The man incharge of this has been dreaming of drilling wells for these people for the last 30 years. To see the joy on his face was the most amazing thing ever. Most people had told me not to drink the water in Mozambique but this was one time I could not resist. I drank a bunch of it and it was good.

Friday after noon we watched the opening to the Olympics at a up-class international bar down town Maputo. As the screen flashed George Bushes over sized face on the screen the hole bar started to boo and scream, I didn’t think this would be a great time to bring out my passport. The best part was watching the Mozambquein athletes come out and every one screaming for joy, including me. It was cool to know I was part of this.

At the boarder we saw tons and tons of people, coming into Mozambique due to the violence against Mozambicans happing in South Africa right now. After we entered South Africa it was like being back in the U.S., all clean and orderly. We stopped at a gas station and they had all my favorite beverages and other stuff. When we got to the park we found a line of cars all trying to get in for Fathers Day, so we had to turn back. We ended up playing golf, I attached several pic from golf. Now I can say I have visited South Africa and played golf there, It is a little different than the U.S. You would be playing on the
green and then hit the ball into long grass that you don’t want to go into for fear of something scary.

Yesterday was a fun adventure. It has been a slow week, not much to tape, so one of the other guys and I went downtown. Near by was a Black Market that I had been wanting to see. After trying to tell him were I wanted to go, (he only speaks Spanish) we parked the car, hid anything of any value and put our wallets in our side pockets. It was like something straight out of a movie, rainiy, bit cold, and smelled like a sewer. If your looking for cheep stolen iPods, cell phones, or car stereos this was the place to be. A bunch of guys with no expression on there faces tried to hustle you a good price. It was one of those times where you live in the moment of this. IT is just like you see in a movie. For sure, I kept my hand on my passport the whole time. I don’t think I could ever bring my self to buy any thing. I had a laptop stolen out of our car a few years back and it is not the greatest feeling. To support this would be a big no no in my book. It was still fun to look.

Today I had another run in with my shapas (taxi/bus) again. This time it was for work. My mission was go back to a church that we had build and Interview a few local women who laid a few blocks and then come home. So after getting a translator, we took off for our church or what we thought was our church. After arriving I discoved he had taken me to the wrong church. After a few min of discussing it with the local people and calling a few others, we took a few more Shapas and my translator saying “it’s a very far away” to the right church. This was a hour and a half after we had started, I pulled out my GPS and it was only 4 miles from our office. My translator started to ask around looking for the women only to find they had all gone away for a few weeks. We finally talked to the women across the street about Bible studies she had been getting from the women I was looking for. After we started interviewing her and were just getting into it deep it started to rain and we all had to run for cover. That was it for interviews for the day, we took 3 more shapas the 4 miles home and called it a day. Shapas are like onions, they smell bad, have layers of people in them and make me cry every time I think of them.

Hi-light number two for the day is a Puppy named Tucker. We were driving downtown today and one of the girls who volunteers for Maranatha, saw puppies being sold on the street. Coming back through the city we stooped and looked at them. She decided on a blond lab that is 3 weeks old. I don’t know if I realy believe that because the translation was in Portuguese to our Mexican who speaks Spanish. He then tried his English on us. I don’t know how I feel about the dog yet because I am a cat person. People treat dogs like babies it crazy. We have not told the Boss yet so there may be some more great stories about Tucker to come. I am sending a pic of him too.

Thats it for now. I should have some great stuff next week. I going on a road trip up into the bush. Should be a fun time. I don’t camp much. The pic I am including are the plane from last weeks adventure, the city Beta’s sky line and Hendric and I golfing.

This is the Water Tower I Went up To get some shoots, I had a guy with me carrying my tripod but he got scared half way up and had to go back down. They don't have any thing to keep you safe like the U.S.

I am quickly discovering it takes a long time to do any thing in 
 Africa.  Eli, the logistics man, and I went shopping for groceries the 
 other day.  I thought this would be a quick trip down to the corner 
 market and back, but I found it a all day process.  He was telling 
 me this is how most days are.  For entertainment down here we 
 mostly surf the net or watch movies. Maputo has a wonderful Bootleg movie market for all your movie needs. Most of the movies are 
 not even out on DVD in the U.S.  One hi-light  was getting pizza 
downtown the other night.



Me with Lots of kids

I am living in the Marnatha Office.  It is a house they work out of. 
 My roommate is a guy named Carl, he is a retired all around fixit 
 kinda man.  We found it great to find out he brought  parmesan 
 cheese with him from the U.S. making our night with the pasta.



This is a armed guard we paid to watch our bus, one of the women in the group asked if the gun had bullets in it. he said yes. The gun is a fully automatic AK47

One thing that has been hard getting used to is when I am in some 
 villages they all stare because I am white and they don’t see many 
 of us.  I stick out even more due to the big Camera I carry.  Sometimes
 people ask to get their pic taken, but other times they get 
 relay mad.  I wondered out on my own from the church yesterday and 
 was about to take a pic when the people started yelling at me in 
 Portuguese and walking toward me.  I left fast to say the least.



A lot of you responded back and that was great. Keep letting me 
 know what going on at home. Thanks to the power of the internet, it 
 does not seem that far evan if it is 21 hours by air.

Me on top of the water tower

I love how us Americans just call Africa, Africa like it’s a country but it is not. It is a continent. I am in Mozambique to be specific. It is just north of South africa, but a lot different. If you’re on this mailing list you probably asked to be, or you’re a good friend or family, or my Mom put you on it. If you don’t what be on it, just drop me a email and if you know of anyone else that wants to be on it let me know.

Elmer, Ron and I acting gangster

When I arrived in Mozambique I quickly discovered that it was different than Chicago or any other major city in the U.S. do to the fact that they don’t speak English. They speak Portuguese and other native languages. This took away the possibility of me using any of my ghetto Spanish on them. I am working for a group called “Maranatha Volunteers International”. They go around planet Earth building churches in developing countries. Unlike the churches of the U.S. where you go once a week on Saturday or Sunday and say a few prayers these churches build a community, places to hold clinics, to meet people and whatever else the locals can think of. They are usually the nicest buildings in town. My job is to go around video tapeing the volunteers coming over to build the churches along with the local people the churches are helping. So far it been a laid back job but a little mind boggling trying to figure out how to make videos in places you don’t understand the culture or language. Thankfully Tina from CA is hear showing me the ropes.

Toasting our Green Drink it tasted about as bad as it looks

We were at a site building a church last week right on the Indian ocean cost. I went swimming and had a lot of fun. We also got some cool shots of people pumping water at a well in the middle of no where. Some other cool stuff we done was visiting a market. They can be really hard core about trying to get you to buy stuff like a bunch of used car salesmen in Cleveland.

Me pumping water at a well

The food hear is good considering so far we have only eaten stuff Americans have made and, at a local Indian restaurant. That was really good. When I get home I going to check out a indian place or two before Taco Bell. They have a great drink called Fanta over hear
along with Coca-Cola.

Things I miss about home are friends, family and Starbucks. So keep them emails coming telling me how you all are.

Me shooting video with local help